Delhi gang-rape protests: Government may consider death penalty in rarest of rare rape cases

New Delhi: The rage spread, rapidly and steadily, through India`s national capital on Saturday as students, activists and just concerned citizens gathered at various places to protest the torture and gang-rape of a young woman.

Some demanding capital punishment to the perpetrators of the heinous crime, some chanting slogans against government’s apathy, some protesting against Delhi police laxity, the angry protesters are demanding justice for the 23-year-old paramedical student, who was raped by a gang of six men in a moving bus in Delhi on Sunday night.

Rarely, if ever, have so many people taken to the streets in so many different places for a single cause. It seems to be an unstoppable momentum.

Shinde also hinted that government may consider death penalty in rarest of rare rape cases.

Five policemen have been suspended for negligence of duty, Home Minister added.

The Government is extremely concerned about the shocking occurrence of gang rape, which took place in Delhi on 16th December 2012, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Tarun Vijay writes to the government, asking that his security detail be redeployed to keeping city safe.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari appeals to UPA leadership to take strict action against the criminals, and improve law and order situation in the country. “Instead of understanding the emotions of the people, police attacked them. It’s unfortunate,” he added.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will reportedly issue an appeal to protesters in a short while.

The rape victim has reportedly recorded her statement before the sub-divisional magistrate. Her statement is now admissible in court.

A protester delegation hands over a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee.

Urging the protesters to calm down, Minister of State for Home Affairs RPN Singh said the government is willing to talk. The minister told a news channel that police could not allow people to break barricades and enter government buildings.

On Friday also, the protests literally reached President Pranab Mukherjee`s doorstep, with angry demonstrators going right up till the gates of Rashtrapati Bhavan and one even managing to enter the complex.

Former Army chief Gen VK Singh joins protest at India Gate, says the failure of the police in Delhi needs to be addressed. He also said that the protest needs to have an outcome.

Huge crowds gather at India Gate to demand justice for the gang-rape victim.

The parliamentary standing committee on home affairs, on its part, summoned Union Home Secretary RK Singh and Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar on December 27 to discuss atrocities against women and the law and order situation in the national capital.

The Delhi High Court said it is not "convinced" with the status report filed by the Delhi Police which did not mention the details of police officials patrolling the area where the woman was gang-raped and tortured in a moving bus.

Faced with the growing outrage, with protests not just in New Delhi but also elsewhere in the country, the Delhi Police arrested two more accused, including one who has claimed that he is a juvenile. The sixth man identified as Akshay Thakur has been arrested from Aurangabad in Bihar.

Demanding justice and fast track courts, many people have rallied in protest in the capital in the days since the incident on Sunday night, when the physiotherapist intern was brutally assaulted and her male friend beaten in a moving bus. Both were stripped and dumped by the roadside near the domestic airport after the nearly 40-minute ordeal.

As people hit the streets of Delhi to vent their grief and anger, the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in central Delhi offered the victim free intestinal transplant.

Doctors treating the woman said their focus was on providing her the best treatment as her life was at grave risk. She underwent surgery to remove a gangrenous section of intestine, and there was risk of infection.